


Seasons

by Tamari



Category: PIERCE Tamora - Works, Protector of the Small - Tamora Pierce, Tortall - Tamora Pierce
Genre: Angst, F/M, Romance, no happy ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-06
Updated: 2012-06-06
Packaged: 2017-11-19 09:12:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 362
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/571639
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tamari/pseuds/Tamari
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes, it just isn't meant to last, and that should be okay. Kel/Dom, with no happy ending.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Seasons

**Author's Note:**

> "In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on."
> 
> –Robert Frost

If she were a season, she would be winter.

She doesn't have the passion, the stifling heat of summer, or the volatile nature of autumn and spring. What passion she does have is intense, unyielding; the never ceasing chill of a Tortallan winter suits her so very well (surprising, since she's spent so much time in the sweltering Islands). She's the seeming fragility of clear icicles that won't snap under force, or the white-silver of frost on stone.

Armies don't march well in winter – they don't work with the bite of ice and the sweep of winds - but Kel makes it just fine as a knight.

But then, she's never been the usual.

-:-

If he were a season, he would be summer.

He's not described in negatives, unlike her (not emotional, not impulsive, not beautiful). He's heat and fire and blazing wit, with the occasional cool breeze that feels all the harsher under the blistering sun. His passion is much like hers, resilient and strong. He's the red-gray of embers burning in the night and the heat seeping through a lake in August.

Armies fight badly in summer, too – they need lots of water and swords attract heat – but Dom battles with the best of them.

But then, he's always been an original.

-:-

Some seasons just don't mix, and she knows it (now).

Didn't Neal warn her, only last year, that Dom is as fickle as storms in summer when it comes to love?

But she's winter, and since when do blizzards listen or care about other people's opinions? It's a virtue, really, or at least it was when it came to pushing through everything and everyone to become a knight.

Not so much when it comes to things like this.

They don't end in a explosive way - there's no screaming, no cheating, nothing like that - but they end just the same. She's left melted and he's left frozen, but somehow they carry on. They're Kel and Dom, winter and summer, and maybe they were fools to think it could work.

But then, everyone's a fool at some time in their life, aren't they?

(Kel hates it when it's her turn, though.)


End file.
